DevISSues Vol. 22 No. 1 Spring 2020

JUNE 2020 VOL . 22 – NO.1

Covid-19: A collision of crises, a menu of solutions?

From the Editorial Board Covid-19: a collision of crises – a menu of solutions?

The effects of Covid-19 make it the obvious focus for this edition of DevISSues. The waves of its ferocity have moved between regions.

At the same time, countries have taken different postures and strategies (from strict lockdown to ‘it’s just a flu…let’s get back to work’).

As a crisis and a disaster, its effects have varied from others. For example, while the so-called Spanish Flu killed mainly ‘prime aged’ adults, Covid-19 seems to strongly affect the elderly/ people with existing illness and those in urban areas. Yet whether it moves outside these parameters is still not clear.

Certainly, the human/labour market effects are very negative for informal and service workers. More positively, front line service people are now being seen more correctly as the indispensable carers they are. It also appears that this health crisis was preceded by new concerns about a global financial meltdown.* These contours are reflected in this edition. For instance, the virus has ISS teaching staff reflecting and dealing with the impacts for our course content/ approach to teaching and wondering how classes (and research) must now take place (Hintjens). In terms of active research and informing, we have a cluster of country-based mini projects dealing with local responses to Covid-19 in conflict-affected contexts and BLISS (the ISS blog) has a special series on the virus.

Colophon DevISSues is published twice a year by the International Institute of Social Studies, PO Box 29776, 2502 LT The Hague, the Netherlands

Our feature pieces show how virus impacts are adding to other regulatory, local and political factors. For example, Ethiopia, whilst poorly resourced, acted fast and brought in various measures and partners so that the impact is, as yet, low (Shuka et al) amongst this relatively young and largely rural population. On the other hand, for the case of sex workers, isolation measures have had a categorically negative effect on their well-being.

Existing preconceptions as to their status have just been underlined by the crisis (Najar).

Tel +31 (0)70 4260 443 or +31 (0)70 4260 419 Fax + 31 (0)70 4260 799 www.iss.nl DevISSues@iss.nl Editor Jane Pocock Editorial Board Lee Pegler, Sunil Tankha, Sandra Nijhof Design Ontwerpwerk, The Hague

In contrast, the indigenous of the Amazon have suffered for centuries from the influx of imported diseases, nearly wiping them out many times over (Widmarck & Pegler). Traditional solutions may now not work and isolation makes it hard to know whether this crisis will affect rural areas as in the past.

In many of the Amazonian countries, the threat of the virus has simply added to food insecurities, livelihood and governance/political fragilities. In various regions it has helped spur further mining in indigenous areas and an escalation in fires/deforestation (due to reduced monitoring).

Cover images Alexandra Koch and Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Production De Bondt Grafimedia Circulation 6,500 The text material from DevISSues may be reproduced or adapted without permission, provided it is

We hope that with this DevISSues we inspire more people to take up the call by van Staveren/D’Egidio (staff student dialogue), Salgado, the Amazonian Indigenous and a Network of Dutch Academics (see Widmarck & Pegler) to use this situation to say – ‘we want a different world, one based more on care and sustainable values, production chains, ecological markets, collective debt sharing and growth targets’. Let’s see if and how far we move.

not distributed for profit and is attributed to the original author

Dr Lee Pegler, Chair, DevISSues Editorial Board

or authors, DevISSues and the International Institute of Social Studies.

ISSN 1566-4821. DevISSues is printed on FSC certified paper

*See www.devissues.nl for reference

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Rector’s Blog It is spring in The Hague, but everything is different Waking up in the early morning in my home in The Hague, I hear the birds singing. It is spring and a beautiful sunny day, the first of a long holiday weekend. The city looks lush and green and the trees are covered with fresh new leaves. It is May in The Hague, always the most beautiful month of the year.

Yet, this year… everything is different. The streets are empty, cafes are closed, people stay at home. Every now and then, on weekdays, I hear the voices of schoolchildren who have started school again.

We have been in this so-called ‘intelligent’ lockdown due to the corona crisis for two months now. The ISS building is empty. Staff and PhD researchers work from home. Most students are in their student rooms, working on their courses, which are all provided online. Others have returned to their home countries and participate from there.

The crisis asks us to care for each other and to consolidate connections between one another which we do through virtual meetings on Teams, Skype or Zoom. The crisis also asks for solidarity and for contributions to those in need.

We can do that through the SSH Student Emergency Fund, for example, for students and PhD researchers who have encountered sudden financial setbacks. The ISS Local Engagement Facility (LEF) supports projects on coronarelated problems among vulnerable populations in The Hague. Staff, PhD researchers, MA students and inhabitants

Inge Hutter Rector ISS

of The Hague will collaborate in four selected projects, details of which are on the ISS website.

Yet I realize how I privileged I am, we all are, in the Netherlands and the global North. What if you need to go into lockdown but you simply have no house to provide shelter? What if you lose your job overnight and your income becomes zero? And you do not know how and where to find food? What if you become ill and the health system is so weak that you cannot receive proper care? What if you live under a regime that simply denies the health effects of the virus? What if you live in a refugee camp and it is simply not possible to comply with a 1.5-metre policy?

On our online Corona file, ISS academic staff, PhD researchers and MA students share their experiences with and research findings on corona-related topics in both the global South and global North: they collect data and present visions of a post-corona society.

This is The Hague, May 2020: the city of peace and social justice …. and of solidarity.

‘Solidarity, Peace and Social Justice’ is the theme of the EADI conference that should have taken place in June at ISS but has had to be postponed until July 2021. I’m sure the theme will be even more relevant then!

Above all, I wish you good health! Please stay safe and be in touch!

Contents

4 Containing the

spread of Covid-19 in Ethiopia

8 Sex workers

driven further to the margins

15 ISS news

20

Focus on ISS

7 Where are they now?

18 Staff-student dialogue

10 Pandemics and the Indigenous

22 ISS publications

11 New books

23 Student life

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Awareness creation on “corona-cognizant' marketing of goods by Covid-19 village task force member, SNNPR region, 11 April 2020 Mr Ahmed Mohammed Ali

Containing the spread of Covid-19 in Ethiopia* Ethiopia has a low but rising number of confirmed Covid-19 cases. Despite these low figures, stringent measures have been implemented since midMarch. In this article we describe the prevention and preparation measures taken in Ethiopia and comment on their consequences, challenges and strengths.

Low figures – a window of opportunity Of the 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), all have reported cases of Covid-19 infection. At the time of writing, the SSA region has close to 76,500 confirmed cases with 1,748 deaths. These figures account for a small proportion of global

Covid-19 infections (1.4%) and an even smaller proportion of deaths (0.51%)1.

This may in part be attributed to limited testing and poor reporting systems, resulting in a distorted or overly optimistic picture. Alternatively, it may reflect the relatively lower integration of such countries in the world economy

and the earlier imposition of lockdownstyle measures.

In Ethiopia, the fear of dealing with the virus in the context of weak health systems and a vulnerable economy, energized the country’s leadership and led to the early imposition of stringent measures.

Measures were adopted on 16 March and further sharpened on 20 March when there were only 5 confirmed cases. On 10 April, the government declared a five-month state of emergency. In terms of stringency, the preventive measures adopted by Ethiopia place it in the most stringent category2.

At the time of writing (25 May 2020), there are 655 confirmed cases based on 83,854 tests. There have been 159 recoveries and five deaths. Almost all the confirmed cases are in urban areas (21% of the population) with most (67%) occurring in the capital, Addis Ababa3.

* This article has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Global Health on May 25, 2020. The journal publishes under CC BY 4.0 licence, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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Prevention and preparation Prevention The government organized itself efficiently and quickly adopted a raft of preventive measures, including: • International travel - isolation of passengers arriving from international destinations and suspension of flights • Quarantine - more than 16,000 people have been placed in quarantine for 14 days • Spread of World Health Organization recommended practices - such as frequent hand washing, avoiding handshakes, elbow sneezing and coughing • Free provisions - toll free telephone lines for information and free provision of sanitary items such as soap and hand-washing gels to targeted groups in Addis Ababa • Closures - of schools, universities, bars and nightclubs; suspending public gatherings and meetings and issuing stay-at-home orders for all but necessary staff • Subsidized - internet and voice package offered by Ethio telecom • Mass disinfection - of critical urban locations • Avoiding overcrowding - by reducing the maximum number of passengers in trains, taxis and busses • Complete transport lockdown - in some regions of the country except for carriage of essential supplies • Release of prisoners - release of around 4,000 prisoners who commit-

ted minor offences and/or were to be soon released • Postponed - national elections scheduled for August 2020 have been postponed While these measures are similar to those taken in other parts of the world, a key difference is that 79% of Ethiopians live in rural areas with weak transportation and communication links. To reach these areas, risk communication and community engagement task forces have been established. These involve the country’s 42,000 health extension workers who undertake the task of household and individual level sensitization and awareness creation. The social distancing measures in rural areas relate to agricultural marketing and avoidance of social gatherings while at the same time continuing daily agricultural tasks. The country’s key social protection programme, the productive safety net programme (PSNP), which requires community labour contributions, has been re-oriented to individual-based activities to avoid social contact.

Preparation At the onset of the crisis, virus testing facilities in the country were limited.

With international support, these have been rapidly ramped up. Currently there are about 24 testing laboratories in the country, capable of performing more than 5,600 tests a day. About 18,000 health professionals have been mobilized and a large exhibition hall in Addis Ababa has been refurbished as a treatment centre.

To prepare the country’s health system, international help has been actively solicited. Teams are distributing testing kits and personal protective equipment donated by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma. The World Bank has provided US$82 million to support the country’s health care needs and the International Monetary Fund approved US$411 million. Financial and material resources are also being obtained through Ethiopian nationals and through the 2 million strong Ethiopian

Community sensitization by community elder in Oromia Region, 1 April 2020.

Mr Ahmad Mohammed Ali

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Preventing social contact in a tactile country such as Ethiopia is very difficult.

Zemzm Shigute – Assistant Professor at ISS and Addis Ababa University

Anagaw Derseh Mebratie – Assistant Professor at Addis Ababa University

Getnet Alemu – Associate Professor at Addis Ababa University

Arjun Bedi – Professor at ISS

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… the measures are stringent but the lockdown has not been heavy-handed.

mobility might limit the spread of the virus in the rural hinterland.

diaspora4. The foreign ministry has issued a request to all Ethiopian missions to raise funds and buy critical medical equipment.

The government’s health care team has been working with Chinese experts to enhance the capacity and expertise of its healthcare system.

Ethiopia is no stranger to widespread shocks, although hitherto most of these have been weather related (droughts and famine) and often confined to rural areas.

Since the disastrous 1983-1984 drought which claimed more than a million lives, the government has strengthened its ability to withstand shocks rather than rely on humanitarian appeals.

Consequences, challenges and strengths The various preventive measures are transforming the health shock into a wider socio-economic shock. There has been a decline in international remittances, tourism has dried-up, the country’s airline is experiencing sharp losses. Demand for horticultural exports – especially flowers – has evaporated.

However, measures to mitigate the economic effects of the crisis have been put in place. Rents on governmentowned property have been reduced and business owners and individuals have been asked to take similar measures.

More than 1,200 food banks have been set up for the urban poor in Addis Ababa.

The government is pushing households who can afford it to provide one meal per day for a poor household.

The country’s main social safety net, the PSNP, is working actively to shield the vulnerable. In rural areas, economic activities, especially farming and marketing of produce, is continuing in a ‘corona-cognizant’ manner. At the moment, the agricultural supply chain has remained stable and there are no reports of food shortages in urban areas.

Preventing social contact in a tactile country such as Ethiopia is very difficult.

Ethiopian social and religious practices and daily culture entail physical contact.

The importance of community, both culturally and in the country’s development strategy, make it hard to respect social distancing. Even if there are efforts to implement ‘social distancing’ and to encourage ‘stay at

home’ principles, these are most apparent only in Addis Ababa.

Despite the various measures taken to prepare the health system, it is unlikely that it will be able to handle patient surges, further underpinning the need for preventive measures. Resources are limited: Ethiopia has a total of 557 mechanical ventilators and 570 intensive care unit beds for a population of 110 million.

Ethiopia is a young country with 40% of its population aged 0-14 and only about 8% aged 55 and above. Given the epidemiological profile of the confirmed cases and deaths in the global North, this may seem positive. However, the country’s young population is not very well nourished, with stunting in 38% of children aged 0-5 and undernourishment of 22% of women aged 15-495.

The dangers of community transmission loom larger in urban areas with high population density, especially in Addis Ababa. However, the bulk of the country has a substantially lower population density. The low population density in rural areas and relatively poor transportation infrastructure which restricts internal

Conclusion The government has moved swiftly and prudently and rolled out a range of measures. On paper, the measures are stringent but the lockdown has not been heavy-handed. Economic activities are continuing albeit at a lower level, and in a country with a large informal sector and reliance on day to day income, a deliberate decision has been taken to allow economic activities, especially agriculture and industry, to continue with a view to maintaining food security and preventing unrest.

The country’s early response, its young population, low population density in rural areas, experience in handling large scale crises and its dense network of community workers are positive aspects in the fight against the virus. However, these are pitted against a weak health system, poor nutritional status, lack of access to proper hygiene and sanitation, and densely populated urban areas. The country’s best hopes lie in its strategy of early imposition and continued adherence to avoid widespread community transmission of the virus.

Note: This is a shortened version of the full article available on DevISSues online.

Observing social distancing outside a supermarket in Addis Ababa, 15 April 2020. Getnet Alemu

1 Available: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/. Accessed: 25 May 2020.

2 Hale T, Webster S, Petherick A, Phillips T, Kira B. Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, Blavatnik School of Government 3 Available: https://tena.et/update?lang=en. Accessed: 25 May 2020.

4 Available: https://semonegna.com/edtf-emergencycovid-19-mitigation/. Accessed 4 May 2020.

5 Available: https://www.unicef.org/ethiopia/nutrition.

Accessed: 19 April 2020

ISS Alumni

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Where are they now?

Phongjira Ploysarak Country Thailand (now in Australia) Organization University of New South Wales, Sydney Position Administrator Study at ISS MA in Development Studies - Public Policy and Administration Year of graduation 2002 How did the study contribute to your career?

The study opened my views of public policy in other countries. I learned a lot about best practices and performance measurement in public organizations which I can now apply in my own organization.

What was your overall experience at ISS? One of the best experiences of my life! I met a lot of people from around the world and we have become good friends and form a good network. The staff at ISS were very helpful and made my time there memorable.

Whenever I face difficulties, I remember what my supervisor (Dr Roger Tangri) told me, ‘Just break your problems into small pieces’.

That always works! For me, ISS is not just a school, it is a family.

Christopher Jack Knowles Country United States of America Organization Paysys Global Position Analyst, Digital Financial Services and Digital Payments Study at ISS MA in Development Studies Economics of Development Year of graduation 2018 How did the study contribute to your career?

ISS helped me to refine my research and writing skills and taught me to think critically.

My research on micro-finance and poverty in the Philippines provided me with the background and experience necessary to be effective in my current position.

What was your overall experience at ISS? ISS was a very memorable experience for me; I learned so much from the professors and international student body. It is great to have a strong network of alumni around the world that can help with local projects and provide country insights. I owe much of my academic and personal growth to ISS and the wonderful people who make it a very special and unique research and learning institution.

Badmus Mutiu Country Ghana Organization Department of Agriculture Position Senior Agriculture Officer Study at ISS MA in Development Studies Agrarian, Food and Environmental Studies Year of graduation 2016 How did the study contribute to your career?

It has developed and deepened my knowledge and skills in ecology and agrarian issues. These have contributed to my critical analysis and ability in problem solving and achieving my professional goals.

What was your overall experience at ISS? It was such a great experience, full of lasting memories. ISS has given me exposure and so much to be proud of going into the world of the politics around issues of food, agriculture and environment.

Padmini Indira Senaratne Samarasinghe (President’s Counsel) Country Sri Lanka Position Principal, Sri Lanka Law College (first lady Principal) former Legal Draftsman of Sri Lanka Study at ISS Post-Graduate Diploma in International Law and Organization for Development Year of Graduation 1995 How did the study contribute to your career?

My programme helped me in my work at the Sri Lanka Law College and at other Institutions. It also helped me in preparing articles for law magazines, conferences and newspapers. I have been given several awards such as the Zonta Woman of Achievement Award and the Top 50 Professional and Career Women Award, Sri Lanka for the Inspirational Woman of the Year (Gold Category) for exceptional contributions and achievements in the legal field.

What was your overall experience at ISS? Pleasant and enjoyable with very supportive staff.

I travelled across Europe with students from other countries.

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Themed article

Sex work is a centuries-old global occupation, yet sex workers have always been marginalized.

The sector has historically (Truong, 2015) been regulated to keep tabs on the social, racial, political and economic engagement of its workers. The regulation of the activities and bodies of sex workers worldwide and their marginalization are predominantly a colonial legacy (Irwin, 1996). In the contemporary age, sex work is approached in binaries, seen either as legal (but regulated) labour or conflated with sex trafficking, which encourages its illegalization.

Sex workers driven further to the margins by the coronavirus crisis C

oncerning the radical changes enacted worldwide due to the spread of the coronavirus, including lockdowns and the temporary halting of high-risk occupations, it appears that the livelihoods, financial security and health situation of sex workers are at risk (PTI, 2020). Some sex

All photos were taken by the author in Sonagachi, India's largest red light district.

Jaffer Latief Najar is a PhD researcher at ISS

workers have used social media platforms to point to the decline in the number of clients and income, and to increasing health risks following the outbreak of Covid-19. For instance, one sex worker used a chain of threads and tweeted that,

There’s no clients! Nobody in their right mind is having sex with a stranger during a pandemic. So often we’re not even given the option of seeing clients! Which means we’re BROKE. (Caradonna, 2020)

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discourse: learning from the experiences of urban subalterns in India’ in Asia’s biggest red light district in Sonagachi, Kolkata, sex workers often noted the issue of exclusion from or discrimination in public healthcare services and in trying to access welfare benefits due to their occupation. Moreover, a majority of sex workers are working with concealed identities and are using surrogate jobs titles to deal with social stigma and tensions in the family. Such tensions indicate elements of hardship already existing in the worker’s lives.

Some sex workers are even offering extra unpaid services to continue drawing clients during the crisis. For instance, a number of sex workers are offering services such as ‘pay for 12 hours and get 12 free’. Indeed, sex workers in the global South, in India (PTI, 2020) for example, are struggling to make temporary arrangements to make ends meet, even fearing possible starvation if the current crisis endures. This explicitly speaks to the severity of the coronavirus crisis and the strategies for survival employed by sex workers themselves. Some civil society and volunteer groups have come forward to help people in sex work areas and are providing them with essential food packets. Sex workers’ communities and collectives have also come forward to raise funds to support sex workers (SWARM, 2020) who are suffering from financial stress during this coronavirus pandemic. But is it sex workers' responsibility to ensure their survival?

What role should the state play in helping sex workers stay afloat financially?

The precarity of sex work Policy makers and feminists have different approaches (Doezema, 2002) to sex work.

Some view it as a form of ‘exploitation’, while others see it as a form of work, framed in relation to individuals’ agency.

The contestation is further complicated by the global anti-trafficking discourse, which largely conflates sex work with sex trafficking and encourages the criminalization of sex work. The United

Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (UN TIP Protocol, 2000) clearly promotes such a criminalization framework, which, after acknowledgement by the majority of nation-states, is shown to have a strong negative impact (Kempadoo, 2015) on the lives and livelihoods of sex workers.

Indeed, within such a dominant frame, institutional support largely reaches sex workers when they represent themselves as victims of trafficking rather than as independent agential sex workers. My personal field of engagement in India’s largest red-light district in Sonagachi has provided ample evidence that the criminalization framework encourages the incarceration of sex workers who resist being framed as victims of trafficking and the dismissal of their basic human rights.

The tensions are also embedded in an intersectional system that supresses sex workers socially, politically, economically and as individuals. During interviews conducted as part of my ongoing fieldwork on the research topic ‘Locating marginalized voices in human trafficking

The current coronavirus pandemic creates a further situation of hardship for them as they avoid working in streets and brothels and lose a share of income, which they present to their families as a salary from surrogate jobs, in addition to their crucial need to earn money to support themselves and their families.

From my recent telephone conversations with sex workers in India, after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, it appears that some sex workers are migrating back to their native villages as they cannot afford the expenses and possible risks in Sonagachi. Besides, it appears that the situation has become riskier and harsher for those migrant sex workers who stay back or who even cannot go back to their native villages, especially undocumented migrant sex workers from outside states and outside national boundaries. The situation of trans-sex workers is even harsher as they are largely unsupported by societal institutions like family and have been excluded or thrown out from their homes or villages due to their sexual identity.

Such workers do not even have the option to go home during this crisis situation. This highlights the view that the state’s institutional support during such crisis situations is essential.

…sex workers often [face]… exclusion from or discrimination in public healthcare services and in trying to access welfare benefits due to their occupation.

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…a number of sex workers are offering services such as ‘pay for 12 hours and get 12 free’.

State support essentially needed In pandemic situations, states generally come forward to support those who are suffering from a loss of income (for example, see how the United States is responding in Cook, 2020). But due to the illegality or precarity of the occupation in many contexts, sex workers are often not seen as entrepreneurs who qualify for government subsidies or financial assistance. In such cases, there would be no mandate or institutional responsibility to offer financial packages, healthcare services or relief benefits to sex workers. Industries and several unorganized work sectors suffering losses due to the coronavirus pandemic have been offered financial packages or healthcare benefits by several government agencies or employing institutions. But if sex work is not a commercially acknowledged industry, sex workers will be further cornered and will suffer further marginalization. Also, being a non-acknowledged industry, sex workers have no way of benefitting from other government support systems that have made several provisions to protect employees and companies alike.

Indeed, those states that regulate sex work as work have imposed a recent ban (Pieters, 2020) on the commercial activities related to this type of work due to the coronavirus pandemic. This will

potentially encourage financial instabilities and further precarities among sex workers if no institutional support is provided (Schaps, 2020).

The system of non-acknowledgement of sex work in established policies therefore excludes sex workers from entitlements or rights and essentially hides sex workers during a pandemic situation, as the current coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated. It also holds back the political, social and institutional responsibility of the state and other actors, including civil society, towards marginalized communities of sex workers.

The onus, in contrast, is indeed forcefully and irresponsibly imposed on sex workers to manage their situation, survive and take high risks for the fulfilment of their basic human needs. Changes in the global socio-political landscape due to the coronavirus pandemic are hence leading to further burdens and precarities (Hobbes, 2020) in the lives of sex workers, whereas the institutional system is failing to show any sign of support. But it is also a learning opportunity for sex workers’ collectives and their allies in preparing responses to future pandemic situations.

Last but not least, and importantly, the crisis also puts in the spotlight the desirability of the criminalization approach toward sex work that exists in dominant anti-trafficking models.

References Caradonna, L. (2020) Tweet 11 March 2020. https://twitter. com/LydiaCaradonna/status/1237752816678121480 Doezema, J. (2020) ‘Who Gets to Choose? Coercion, Consent, and the UN Trafficking Protocol’ Gender and Development Vol. 10, No. 1.

Hobbes, M. (2020) ‘Coronavirus Fears Are Decimating The Sex Industry’, Huffington Post, 12 March 2020. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/seattle-sex-workers-covid19-coronavirus_n_5e69233ac5b60557280fbfce?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004&guccounter=1 Irwin, M. A. (1996) ‘”While Slavery” as Metaphor Anatomy of a Moral Panic’, https://walnet.org/csis/papers/ irwin-wslavery.html Kempadoo K., Sanghera J., Pattanaik, B. (2015) Trafficking and Prostitution Reconsidered:New Perspectives on Migration, Sex Work, and Human Rights, New York: Routledge.

PTI (2020) ‘Sex workers face uncertain future in COVID-19 time’. Outlook news scroll, 27 March 2020. https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/sex-workersface-uncertain-future-in-covid19-time/1782299 Cook, N. (2020) ‘Trump pledges financial help to counter coronavirus losses’ Politico, 9 March 2020. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/09/ donald-trump-fiscal-stimulus-measures-124347 Pieters , J (2020) ‘MANY SEX WORKERS IGNORING CORONAVIRUS DISTANCING MEASURES: REPORT’.

NLTIMES.NL, April 1, 2020 https://nltimes.nl/2020/04/01/ many-sex-workers-ignoring-coronavirus-distancing-measures-report Swaps, K. (2020) ‘Dutch sex workers risk trafficking and abuse as coronavirus bites’, Reuters, 20 March 2020. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-netherlands-sexwor/dutch-sex-workers-risk-trafficking-and-abuse-as-coronavirus-bites-idUSKBN2163DI SWARM (2020) Tweet 13 March 2020. https://twitter.com/ SexWorkHive/status/1238467356923494400 Truong, T-D (2015) ‘Human Trafficking, Globalisation and Transnational Feminist Responses’, Working Paper no. 579 p. 1- 35, The Hague: Institute of Social Studies.

UN TIP Protocol (2000) ‘Protocol to Prevent, Supress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime’.

ISS publications

New books Industrial tree plantations and the land rush in China In this book based on her PhD thesis, Yunan Xu analyses the political and economic causes, mechanisms and impacts of the industrial tree plantation boom in China.

Perspective in development – An Exercise in Worldmaking A collection of best MA student essays written, selected and edited by the students themselves. The essays illustrate how a diverse student body can contest, construct and redefine the notion of development.

Inclusion through Enacted Citizenship in Urban Spaces This special issue of the Journal of Social Inclusion is co-edited by Helen Hintjens and Rachel Kurian and includes articles by several ISS and EUR researchers. They investigate concepts of inclusion and exclusion, using them to connect the informal with the formal, migrants with professionals, locals with those from elsewhere.

200 PhDs at ISS Commemorative booklet celebrating 200 PhD graduations at ISS. The first edition of the booklet was presented to Saskia Bruines, The Hague Deputy Mayor.

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12

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Julienne Widmarck

Lee Pegler is

is a PhD researcher

Assistant Professor

at ISS

at ISS

Pandemics and the Indigenous:

Seeing it differently answering it differently?

Covid-19 has led to more than 279,000 deaths around the world1. In this paper, we discuss how the Amazonian indigenous appear to be coping with this disease and certain civil society responses to this.

T

he Amazon is the world's largest rainforest. It covers most of the Amazon basin, encompassing 7,000,000 km2, of which 5,500,000 km2 are covered by rainforest.3 Most of the forest is in Brazil (60%), followed by Peru (13%) and Colombia (10%), with small amounts in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia,

Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.4 It is also the ancestral home of three million indigenous people divided into 350 ethnic groups, each with its own language, culture and territory.5 More than 60 tribes still remain largely isolated (COICA).6

‘All this destruction is not our mark. It is the footprint of the whites, the trail of you on earth.’

Davi Kopenawa Yanomami2

When Europeans arrived in South America, in around 1500, they brought diseases like flu, pneumonia, intestinal parasites and other infections which decimated more than half the indigenous population.7 In the first 300 years of the European conquest, typhus, smallpox, measles and bubonic plague decimated up to 95% of the population of the hemisphere. This event is known as ‘The Biological Cataclysm’, an expression used by anthropologist Henry F. Dobyns8 to describe the effect of epidemics brought

by European invaders to Amerindian populations.

Why is Covid-19 so frightening for indigenous populations?9 The disease is an intrusion, as smallpox was in the 16th century, so the past may be repeating itself. First, this is because of the physical vulnerability of indigenous populations to a new contamination.

Secluded communities may also be exposed to external doctors arriving in their villages. Moreover, many live in

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The disease is an intrusion… because of the physical vulnerability of indigenous populations to a new contamination. confusing context of state-military expansion.

In Brazil, the situation is catastrophic.

The Brazilian National Indigenous Foundation is banning visitors to indigenous territories. However, with President Bolsonaro’s tacit approval, thousands of illegal gold miners are currently extracting gold in these territories. Ironically, attempts in Brazil to isolate regions from the virus have reduced resources available for forest monitoring and a massive new wave of fires and deforestation is taking place.18 Regulation MP-19019 (May 2020) regularizes the takeover (grabbing) of public lands in indigenous areas, traditionally occupied territories, and those remnants of forest in private and public areas not yet registered.20

Source: https://hackeocultural.org/

areas far from urban centres where hospitals are located.

In Peru, indigenous leaders closed borders to their communities, hoping that isolation would protect them from the virus.10 Moreover, famine is now becoming a substantial and growing problem for these communities.11 Likewise, the continuation of illegal mining in some areas of La Pampa, and recent cases of Covid-19 in Madre de Dios, have increased fears of the possibility of a faster spread of the virus to these indigenous communities.12 In Colombia, more than 500,000 indigenous families live in crisis conditions.13 In Leticia, the principal city of the Colombian Amazon, as of 14 May 493 deaths have been documented but experts are convinced that actual numbers are much higher.14 58% of the

Colombian Amazon’s native population is ‘at risk of extinction’ in the face of the pandemic (National Indigenous Organization of Colombia).15 According to Fernanda Doz Costa, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for the Americas, without help from the Colombian government, the indigenous people are facing two possible outcomes: starve to death or die from a coronavirus infection.16

In Brazil, the situation is catastrophic.

In Bolivia, Covid-19 has also accentuated the political crisis and economic fragility.17 In additional to a severe lack of healthcare, Bolivians are struggling with the pandemic in the middle of a

Of the 163 cases of Covid-19 confirmed amongst indigenous people, 75 are in Alto Rio Solimões, 24 in Manaus, 18 in Parintins, and 9 in Yanomami lands. The problem is still not very clear though, as figures from secluded communities are scarce.

Civil society: articulating concerns and making suggestions In the past, social isolation was used by Brazilian Indians in the face of diseases they did not know, based on a strategy of collectivizing individual sacrifice.21 The question is whether this will be enough this time. Photographer Sebastião Salgado22 (UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and honorary member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences) has expressed concern about the possibility of Covid-19 leading to genocide amongst indigenous

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Themed article

Source: https://covid19.socioambiental.org/

populations. His manifesto, ‘Help us protect the Indians of the Amazon from COVID-19’ published by the Journal du Dimanche,23 has more than 236,000 signatures and asks President Bolsonaro to take immediate steps to defend indigenous people from the threat of the pandemic.

In the Netherlands, scientific concern is both specific to indigenous and local populations’ rights but also critical of the environmental effects of activities by national and multinational companies in the region.24 These responses simply add to the socio-environmental concerns being voiced by a wide range of Brazilian (especially indigenous) organizations at a local25 and international level.26 A group of 170 Dutch scientists have publicly declared that this virus illustrates that the time is right to make a radical turn in the way we approach equity and sustainable economy.27 We must now make radical reforms to things such as travel, global food chains, growth patterns/targets and the distribution/debt burdens of

developing countries. The question is, how much will we really change this time?

Note: A longer version and full references for this article are included on DevISSues online.

1 https://www.google.com/search?q=covid-19+ death+worlds&oq=covid-19+death+worlds&aqs=chr ome..69i57j0l3.9991j0j7sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 2 https://www.revistaserrote.com.br/2020/04/a-duplaameaca-aos-povos-indigenas-por-aparecida-vilaca/ 3 https://www.mma.gov.br/biomas/amaz%C3%B4nia 4 https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=NhHvAwAAQBAJ&hl=pt 5 https://www.survivalinternational.org/about/ amazontribes 6 http://www.indigene.de/20.html 7 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC126866/ 8 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/ 304685819_Biological_Changes_Ecological_Imperialism_and_the_Transformation_of_Tribal_Worlds 9 https://brasil.elpais.com/planeta_futuro/2020-04-14/o-coronavirus-pisa-nos-calcanhares-dos-povos-originarios.html 10 https://es.mongabay.com/2020/05/peru-covid19-comunidades-indigenas/ 11 https://www.undp.org/content/undp/es/home/ blog/2020/ supporting-peru_s-indigenous-people-in-the-fight-against-covid-1.html 12 https://www.cimmyt.org/news/safeguarding-biodiversity-is-essential-to-prevent-the-next-covid-19/ 13 https://www.nodal.am/2020/04/emergencia-encomunidades-de-mexico-bolivia-colombia-y-peruante-el-covid-19/ 14 https://thebogotapost.com/coronavirus-in-colombiamay-7-update/46423/ 15 https://oglobo.globo.com/mundo/pandemia-do-coronavirus-invade-amazonia-colombianapela-fronteira-com-brasil-24412953 16 https://anistia.org.br/noticias/colombia-povosindigenas-poderao-morrer-de-covid-19-oude-fome-se-o-estado-nao-agir-imediatamente/ 17 https://discoversociety.org/2020/04/03/ covid-19-in-bolivia-fuels-political-crisis/ 18 https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/ deforestation-amazon-has-soared-under-cover-coronavirus-n1204451 19 https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2020/05/12/ mp-910-entrega-65-milhoes-de-hectares-publicos-para-uso-privado-denuncia-procuradora 20 https://www.oeco.org.br/colunas/colunistasconvidados/a-ameaca-socioambiental-da-mp-910-2019-na-amazonia/ 21 https://www.dw.com/pt-br/como-ancestraisind%C3%ADgenas-se-preveniam-de-epidemias/ a-53335336?maca=pt-BR-Whatsapp-sharing 22 https://www.amazonasimages.com/ 23 https://www.lejdd.fr/International/exclusif-covid-19salgado-mccartney-madonna-lappel-urgent-poursauver-les-peuples-indigenes-du-bresil-3965849 24 https://issblog.nl/2020/05/05/contesting-theamazon-as-an-open-space-for-development-bylee-pegler-and-julienne-andrade-widmarck/ 25 http://www.saudecampofloresta.unb.br/wp-content/ uploads/2019/06/CARTA-DO-ENCONTRO-DAS-%C3%81GUAS-ATUALIZADA.pdf 26 https://wibf.ca/ 27 https://www.trouw.nl/duurzaamheid-natuur/ manifest-van-170-wetenschappers-het-is-eenblunder-als-we-niet-groener-uit-de-coronacrisiskomen~b12864df/

…this virus illustrates that the time is right to make a radical turn in the way we approach equity and sustainable economy.

ISS news

ISS news alumni awards EUR events PhD projects research staff students

ISS alumna elected YWCA President alumni Mira Rizek has been elected world YWCA President until 2023. YMCA works for the empowerment, leadership and rights of women and girls.

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ISS alumnus Vice Minister of Economy in Argentina alumni Alumnus Haroldo Montagu graduated from ISS in 2017. He majored in the Economics of Development.

ISS research on corona research What are the social, economic and political consequences of the corona pandemic?

ISS has a dedicated Corona file on its website highlighting its research into these issues.

Covid-19 series on BlISS research

ISS’ engagement in The Hague ISS

In this series of posts, ISS blog BlISS examines the coronavirus pandemic and its consequences for the development sector.

ISS and The Hague are have joined forces on 4 projects focusing on the impacts of Covid-19 on marginalized groups.

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ISS news

2 new free online courses students

1. MOOC by Peter van Bergeijk and Ksenia Anisimova on global policy anaylsis.

2. MOOC by Thea Hilhorst on disaster risk reduction and humanitarian aid in conflict settings.

Dr Roy Huijsmans to research youth migration and rural changes in Laos staff

Dr Georgina Gomez elected to World Interdisciplinary Network for Institutional Research Council staff

Dr Roy Huijsmans has been offered a 3-month sabbatical with the International Water Management Institute to work on Youth Migration and Rural Changes in Laos.

Professor Thea Hilhorst awarded Advanced Grant by the European Research Council research The grant is for a 5-year research project on humanitarian governance, aiming to understand what patterns of governance emerge in different types of crises and in different contexts.

Dr Georgina Gomez was recently elected to the Council of the World Interdisciplinary Network for Institutional Research, a global network studying the nature, function, evolution and impact of institutions.

Launch EU-funded project to strengthen trade capacity Tanzania research This 2-year programme by ISS and Research on Poverty Alleviation in Tanzania, aims to enhance the capacity of Tanzania to formulate and implement trade policies.

ISS news

ISS establishes a PhD Alumni Association PhD

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'A good research question that is also a relevant question' research

With this association, ISS hopes to further strengthen and expand its PhD alumni network, creating a lifelong learning platform.

ISS has produced a short video about its critical, social relevant research. The video discusses the focus of ISS research, how this relates to global societal questions and the impact ISS research has on these.

PhD defences PhD

Saskia Vossenberg (4 June 2020, online) Gendered Institutions Matter: A middle ground between feminist and gender-blind perspectives on enterprise development

Mauro Conti (16 April 2020, online) Agrifinancialization and Transnational Agrarian Movements

Elizabeth Mulewa Ngutuku (cum laude) (4 March 2020) Rhizomatic Cartographies of Children’s Lived Experience of Poverty and Vulnerability in Siaya, Kenya

Jacqueline Gaybor Tobar (21 February 2020) The Body Politics of Menstruation: Technologies, sustainability and destigmatization

Sonia Carolina López Cerón (cum laude) (31 January 2020) The Stratified Emergentist Polanyian Perspective: A relational approach for the study of the economy

Shigehisa Kasahara (19 December 2019) A Critical Evaluation of the Flying Geese Paradigm: The evolving framework of the model and its application to East Asian regional development and beyond

Tefera Gebregziabher (12 December 2019) The Party that Consumes the State: The rise of oligarchy in post-1991 Ethiopia

Anne Siebert (21 November 2019) Food Sovereignty and Urban Agriculture: Understanding interlinkages and exploring implications in the South African context

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ISS news

The economic consequences of the coronacrisis MA student Vincenzo D’Egidio and Professor of Pluralist Development Economics Irene van Staveren discuss the global economic consequences of the corona pandemic.

Vincenzo (V): I want to analyse the impact of the coronavirus as a health crisis, and as a social and economic one.

What are the connections and differences between these? I plan to look at global trends and consider how developing countries are affected.

Irene (I): I’m a member of a Dutch thinktank called the Sustainable Finance

Lab (SFL). We set up the Lab two years after the 2008 crisis to help the financial sector become more stable and sustainable. We are looking at the impact of the corona crisis on the economy and the role of the financial sector.

V: Governments are now talking about easing the lockdown. However, I fear we can’t assume that institutions, authorities

and workers will see the post-crisis phase as a new start but will struggle to cope.

I: I think talking about the economy and life before and after corona is a big shift.

You can see the important role of the government now, both in shutting down sectors completely and in providing financial support.

Staff-student dialogue

V: What do you think of the intervention by the European Central Bank (ECB)?

I: I think it’s good that there are finally support packages specifically for the southern European countries. My concern is that these will increase the level of debt of the already highly indebted countries. Southern European countries don’t need loans, they need grants. Corona bonds are a way of minimizing the debt problem: because they are Eurobonds, the risk is spread, and countries can borrow at a low interest rate. The ECB could also buy some bonds from southern countries.

V: But could this not lead to a liquidity trap, where expansionary policies are inefficient in a context where interest rates are already close to zero?

I: Yes, but 0% interest rates have been around for a while now; it’s the new normal.

V: People are talking about helicopter money (printing extra money) for governments to invest as financial assistance to small and medium companies.

I: Now is the right time for helicopter money, but at the European level, through the ECB or the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Not directly but through special drawing rights (SDRs).

Countries can use these as reserves that are convertible into hard currency, either with the IMF or rich countries.

Countries that don’t need to exchange them, could donate part of their SDRs to countries that do. This would be development aid in the form of a grant.

The corona crisis has shown us the vulnerability of…massive specialization.

quickly. And that is precisely why I plea for corona bonds and for the exchange of SDRs for hard currency.

V: I think that more money may be the solution for small and medium economies, but I don’t really know how to deal with the development issue in such a context.

V: This involves coordination at the international level. A complete and deep recovery of the economic system after the lockdown will only be possible with a global harmonization of policies. I don’t think we are witnessing such coordination at the moment.

I: True, interests aren’t the same worldwide, but many countries realise that they can’t solve this alone and that if some countries fall into a deep recession, others may follow.

V: In a recent press conference, Trump said something about tackling the coronavirus using humanitarian measures. This is a perfect example of how countries see things differently.

I: The interesting thing is that not everybody in the US supports Trump. The US Federal Reserve has issued bonds to several developing countries to provide them with extra liquidity to fight the crisis. The Federal Reserve is much more practical than Trump and understands that it needs to support big developing countries like Brazil and Mexico.

V: This crisis is different from the global recession of 2008. While that crisis was set off by a real estate bubble that was ‘endogenous’ to the economic system, this crisis is an exogenous shock so recovery should be faster.

V: So a kind of redirection of investment?

I: Yes, the money can then be invested back into the economy.

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I: I think if we look at the world economy as a whole, we see that most world trade is dominated by multinational companies, by intercompany trade. That is because of huge specialization in low cost production along very long value chains. The corona crisis has shown us the vulnerability of such massive specialization: the global North is too dependent on just a few value chains for key products, whilst the economies in the global South are dependent for their employment on those same value chains. This calls for a systematic change to the world economy towards shorter supply chains.

V: I don’t know whether the whole global economy will be able or willing to implement this.

I: There’s a trade-off between the efficiency of a fully globalized world, and very strong specialization and resilience.

If Italy or the Netherlands had manufactured their own face masks, for example, they would have been less vulnerable: global production chains are only efficient in normal times; in periods of shock they’re completely inefficient.

V: Maybe the answer is a state-owned investment fund like the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund.

I: Indeed.

I: I agree. But there is one big condition for this: if the solution at the macro­ economic level is more debt, I’m not sure whether we will be able to recover

Note: The full edited transcript of this conversation is reproduced on DevISSues online.

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Staff-student dialogue

What is Good Teaching?

Answer: Good Learning

Helen Hintjens is Assistant Professor at ISS.

S

trangely, being a good teacher is not what it might seem, a studied skill. It is more of an art than a science. Many training courses have the idea that to be a good teacher you need to do certain things, like encourage

group work, project your voice, present in exciting ways using multi-media.

Although all of this is important, none of these is ‘it’. Know your weaknesses and play to your strengths; that seems to be the best approach. Oh, and keep

learning yourself; attend college; study something fun!

Strangely, I found the key to good teaching on the other side of the world.

Twenty years ago, I was Visiting Fellow at Melbourne University and followed a course with around 100 BA students.

As we drifted into lectures, music would play. It set the mood and tone for a relaxed, interactive class, Indigenous Australian Politics and Culture. The lecturer identified as Aboriginal, the only one among the Faculty academics. There were very few Aboriginal-identifying students. So, the vast majority of the class was White or Asian Australian.

Their enthusiasm was genuine. Just like young Europeans keen to learn about the Holocaust, their hunger for knowledge reflected their desire for self-knowledge.

Each week we would have a recap of what went before, in which students were encouraged to recap and comment. They differed greatly in their opinions. They felt quite free to disagree with the teacher and he was quite comfortable with that.

He covered criminal justice, policing and prison, land rights, lifestyles and beliefs, colonial history, and contemporary social

Focus on ISS

justice efforts. As an observer, the classroom seemed a real pedagogic hub; the classroom was not about teaching at all, but about learning. To know oneself and to know one’s own limitations, that was the secret.

Having been teaching at university for almost 35 years, I have done more than I can remember. This has involved over 20 years of online role play simulations with groups of MA students, from 15 to as many as 40 people and roles. I started with Venezuela. When I joined ISS in 2005, I was advised that Venezuela was not a ‘typical’ developing country. Well look at it now! Today, in terms of food security Venezuela falls somewhere between South Sudan and Yemen.

Nobody on the Left or Centre-Left seems to want to discuss this case. So here is the first rule of good teaching: never think you know what will happen in the world. Second rule: never stop trying to understand what on earth is happening. History is important, so is trying to understand what is going on today, as we learn in class, whether virtual or face-to-face.

The Securitisation of Development MA course this year was a good example of where life provided lessons. In an early session, a student from the Woudestein campus of Erasmus University Rotterdam casually mentioned the Covid-19 virus outbreak in China and asked whether it could be seen as a security issue. We regularly discussed what was happening and how the virus was being securitized, moving from a crisis ‘over there’ in China, to Italy (as one student got stuck there) and then right on our doorstep. The last class was cancelled due to the corona­ virus outbreak. Prior to that day we had managed to keep raising the coronavirus issue and it seemed almost unbelievable how an issue that had started out ‘over there’, as a ‘Chinese problem’ had travelled so fast to suspend our last class.

During that class, one alumnus and one current MA student had each offered to talk about Syria and Somalia. This was not to be.

Higher Education institutions are now closed for face-to-face teaching. In many ways, this process of naming Covid-19 a threat to our everyday security illustrated most themes in the

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course. Actions depend on definitions.

Declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, it became only a matter of time before we all had to start self-isolating. My satisfaction came with the way students seemed to learn how to cope in such a difficult situation, since every part of the course seemed to help explain what was going on. From the longer-term imperial history of security, to the security-development nexus after 9/11, and theories of (de)securitization, to humanitarianism, old and new (thanks to Professor Thea Hilhorst), inequality and insecurity (thanks to Professor Mansoob Murshed), psycho-social approaches (Dr Shyamika JayasundaraSmits); all parts of the course contributed to making sense of all this.

So for me, good teaching is simply enabling oneself, and of course also others, to learn.

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ISS publications

Development and Change

Working Papers

Development and Change is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal devoted to the critical analysis and discussion of current issues of development. It was established by the ISS in 1969, in response to the perceived need for a multidisciplinary journal dealing with all aspects of development studies. http://www.iss.nl/publications/development_and_change/

The ISS Working Paper series provides a forum for work in progress which seeks to elicit comments and generate discussion. The series includes academic research by staff, PhD participants and visiting fellows, and award-winning research papers by graduate students.

Volume 51, Number 2, March 2020 Focus C. Jean Arment Food Dependency in SubSaharan Africa: Simply a Matter of ‘Vulnerability’, or Missed Development Opportunity?

Ha-Joon Chang, Antonio Andreoni Industrial Policy in the 21st Century Kaushik Basu, S. Subramanian Inequality, Growth, Poverty and Lunar Eclipses: Policy and Arithmetic Debate: Social Policy under the Global Shadow of Right-wing Populism Andrew M. Fischer The Dark Sides of Social Policy: From Neoliberalism to Resurgent Right-wing Populism Ray Kiely Assessing Conservative Populism: A New Double Movement or Neoliberal Populism?

James Putzel The ‘Populist’ Right Challenge to Neoliberalism: Social Policy between a Rock and a Hard Place Ayşe Buğra Politics of Social Policy in a Late Industrializing Country: The Case of Turkey Ajay Gudavarthy, G. Vijay Social Policy and Political Mobilization in India: Producing Hierarchical Fraternity and Polarized Differences Charmaine G. Ramos Change without Transformation: Social Policy Reforms in the Philippines under Duterte Pia Riggirozzi Social Policy, Inequalities and the Battle of Rights in Latin America

Jane Duckett Neoliberalism, Authoritarian Politics and Social Policy in China Paul Stubbs, Noémi Lendvai-Bainton Authoritarian Neoliberalism, Radical Conservatism and Social Policy within the European Union: Croatia, Hungary and Poland Jimi O. Adesina Policy Merchandising and Social Assistance in Africa: Don't Call Dog Monkey for Me Reflections Maha Abdelrahman Deexoticizing Saudi Arabia with Madawi Al-Rasheed Legacies Cristóbal Kay Theotonio Dos Santos (1936-2018): The Revolutionary Intellectual Who Pioneered Dependency Theory Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven Samir Amin: A Pioneering Marxist and Third World Activist Amrita Chhachhi Peter Waterman (1936-2017): Radical Internationalist, Scholar-Activist Assessments Kate Meagher Illusions of Inclusion: Assessment of the World Development Report 2019 on the Changing Nature of Work Laura Alfers, Rachel Moussié The ILO World Social Protection Report 2017-19: An Assessment Liam Clegg The IMF Record on Social Protection: Pro-poor or Poor?

Robert Pollin Green Economics and Decent Work: A Viable Unified Framework

Amartya Sen, social theorizing and contemporary India Gasper, D.R. ISS Working Paper Series no 658 Macroeconomic effects of trade and financial sanctions Murshed, S.M. ISS Working Paper Series no 657 Revisiting the oil and democracy nexus: New evidence utilizing V-DEM democracy data in a GMM PVAR framework Bergougui, M. and Murshed, S.M. ISS Working Paper Series no 656 Water governance under occupation: A contemporary analysis of the water insecurities of Palestinians in the Jordan Valley, West Bank Rudolph, M. ISS Working Paper Series no 655 Embroidering resistance: Daily struggles of women affected by the Baixo Iguaçu Hydropower Dam in Paraná, South Brazil Rusansky, T. ISS Working Paper Series no 654 Plants and their peasants: A more-than-human approach to plant breeding and seed politics in Brittany, France Rezvani, L. ISS Working Paper Series no 653 Does the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) help reduce corruption in Latin America?

Evidence from Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago López Cazar, I.M. ISS Working Paper Series no 652 The border walls of (de)globalization Kamwela, V.K. and van Bergeijk, P.A.G. ISS Working Paper Series no 651 The effect of FDI on environmental emissions: Evidence from a meta-analysis Demena, B.A. and Afesorgbor, S.K. ISS Working Paper no 650 Genocide warning: The vulnerability of banyamulenge ‘invaders’ Ntanyoma, R.D. ISS Working Paper Series no 649

Student life

STUDENT LIFE

‘The picture shows my work station, I always have a cup of tea and a healthy snack. Surrounding myself with plants and bright, light colours helps me to stay motivated and relaxed.’ Photo by Astrid van Egmond

Henry Okidi Okoth ready for online classes.

Sam Nicholas Atanga struggling to finish Term 2 assignments.

Just days before lockdown, ISS students made a statement against feminicides in Latin America. Photo by Sandra Nijhof

Daren Paul Katigbak’s exercise routine during the lockdown.

Dina, Nia, Vinay and Gio having Iftar together with Indian food.

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We hope to resume in-person teaching in January 2021

2020-21 academic year to start online in September 2020 Even under the difficult circumstances of the corona pandemic, we are confident that we will be able to maintain the high quality, state of the art, pluriform, critical and interactive educational experience for which the ISS is known.

Despite teaching being online, students are welcome to come over to The Hague as of the end of August.

For more details see www.iss.nl/prospective-students